This comment piece by our Executive Director, Robert Palmer, first appeared in The Times.

The real heroes of our society are emerging: they are nurses, supermarket staff, delivery drivers and helpful neighbours. Many of these people are woefully underpaid.

The coming months will see politicians urge the public to show solidarity normally reserved for wartime.

When the worst is over, there will be a big debate about the role of the state and to what extent measures introduced to help get us through will be rolled back.

After the 2008 financial crisis, the burden of spending cuts fell disproportionately on the disabled, sick and vulnerable. Even the NHS, despite record investment, failed to keep up with demand. The promise to the families who have lost loved ones to this epidemic must be “never again”.

Politicians would be foolish to think that the public hasn’t noticed the deterioration of our public realm. One of the consistent messages I have heard in focus groups from Blyth Valley to Hastings since the election is that people feel insecure. Just about managing families are worried about their future amid pervasive resignation with the way things are.

That was the temperature of the nation before coronavirus arrived.

The health and economic emergency we’re facing has exposed even further the threadbare nature of our social safety net. This means that an austerity re-run is not an option. Instead, what we need is something closer to the spirit of 1945, when post-war rebuilding saw a new political consensus that included the founding of the NHS and an expansion in state support.

The Prime Minister has already suggested that he gets this. Earlier this month he said that: “In 2008 everyone said we bailed out the banks and didn't look after the people who really suffered. This time we will look after the people who really suffer..."

The government should be bold. Many of the changes introduced over the last few weeks, such as more generous sick pay and Universal Credit, must stay. But we should go further, for example by introducing a minimum income guarantee.

As we start to rebuild after the immediate crisis has passed we need a new social contract to support increased spending. Tax loopholes exploited by the wealthy and companies should be closed for good. Serious consideration needs to be given to a tax on wealth. Some are suggesting an extra levy on companies making super-sized profits, as happened during WWII. We also need to properly resource HMRC and stop the current programme of layoffs of tax staff who have been designated key workers. These measures would ensure that those with the broadest shoulders are contributing to our recovery.

Polling that my organisation - Tax Justice UK - carried out as we went into lockdown found that this would be popular. 74% of the public want to see the wealthy paying more tax. Only 24% of people rule out paying more tax themselves.

Before the virus struck, there were signs that a cross-party space was opening up to address issues of inequality and public services, with the Conservatives championing a “levelling up” agenda.

Once we’re through the worst of the crisis, these discussions will become even more acute. Progressive tax reform needs to be part of the mix if the public is going to be able to confidently say “never again”.



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A poll carried out as the UK went into coronavirus lockdown found Brits already concerned about the state of the NHS, public services and poverty. The poll of 3,000 people by Survation for Tax Justice UK revealed significant support for higher taxes on wealth and companies. The detailed results are available here. 

We’re all coming together to help get through the devastation caused by coronavirus, but the crisis has exposed how threadbare our public services have become. 

When we emerge from this, we need a response that’s along the lines of 1945, when we created the NHS, rather than a repeat of post-2008 austerity. Instead of looking for more cuts, the public favours policies that strengthen our precarious social safety net.

The poll found more than three quarters (79%) believe that NHS, policing and education were either the same (25%) or have become worse (53%) in the last 10 years; 67% said homelessness was worse; 78% feel that poverty was either the same or worse; while people think that foodbank use (64%) and inequality (63%) have both got worse.

The extra government spending introduced to deal with the crisis will largely be funded through borrowing and money creation. But as the crisis fades, a return to austerity would go down badly with the country. Higher taxes on wealth and companies would be a popular way to support more government spending and tackle rampant inequality. 

74% of the public want to see the wealthy paying more tax - including 64% of Conservatives. Nearly two thirds of respondents (66%) believe that people who earn a living from their wealth should face the same tax rates as those who work. 69% support council tax reform to make it more closely reflect current house prices, so those with more expensive homes pay more. 63% support an annual wealth tax, including 57% of Conservatives. Only 24% don't want to pay more tax personally and a similar percentage (26%) of respondents want to see tax cuts for everyone. 

The poll also found people in an uncompromising mood about companies and individuals who avoid tax, 87% think that the government should close tax loopholes for corporations and individuals, meanwhile 74% agree it’s not right that wealthy people can pay for accountants to find ways to avoid paying their share. 84% say tax avoidance by companies is morally wrong, even if legal, and a similar proportion (80%) take the same view of tax avoidance by individuals. 67% support higher taxes on companies’ profits, including 61% of Conservative voters. 

People have had enough of the clever accounting that allows companies and wealthy individuals to pay less than they should. We need an economy that prioritises care. If we are to be resilient to future shocks, that means the strongest taking their fair share of the burden through higher taxes on wealth and companies.

Post-crisis tax changes could include higher taxes on wealth and a tax on super-sized corporate profits. Any reform would have to be accompanied by more resources to HMRC to administer the scheme. 

This polling builds on our report “What’s wealth got to do with it", which was based on seven focus groups asking the public their attitudes on public spending, wealth and tax. It is available here. It is part of an ongoing project to understand public attitudes on tax. 

The survey took place 17-23 March via an online panel and consisted of 3,010 UK residents aged 18+. It is part of an ongoing project by TJ-UK to test attitudes on public services, inequality and tax. Download the full results tables here. 

This project was funded by the Friends Provident Foundation. 

The Marmot Review's finding that life expectancy for poorer women has decreased in the last decade is a stark illustration of what deep and entrenched inequality means in the UK today.

The UK is one of the richest countries in the world but the report highlights how social, economic and wealth disparities have led to a situation where poorer women's life prospects have gone backwards.

The Women’s Budget Group has launched the Commission on a Gender-Equal Economy in a bid to do something about this. They aim to develop an alternative economic approach so that that gender equality becomes a reality in the UK economy. 

You can read Tax Justice UK’s submission of evidence to the commission here.

​To submit evidence to the Commission on a Gender-Equal Economy, contact the Commission’s project manager, Marion Sharples: marion.sharples [at] wbg.org.uk.

In the wake of a general election that gave Boris Johnson a big victory, there are good reasons to think that the Prime Minister will open the spending taps. The current 80 seat majority owes much to Conservative success in winning former Labour strongholds, where voters want to see better public services.

In advance of next month’s budget the government is rumoured to be considering higher taxes on wealth to help fund promises to “level up” newly Conservative areas. Focus groups carried out over the last couple of months by Tax Justice UK and Survation found that this would be popular. 

Today we’re publishing our report What's wealth got to do with it? that lays out what we found when we asked voters their views on the election, the state of public services and the role that taxes on wealth could play in supporting government spending. The groups took place in new Conservative seats in former Labour heartlands such as Blyth and Wrexham, as well as other areas including London and Reading. 

More or less everyone we heard from was desperate to see investment in their communities and many supported higher taxes on wealth to help pay for this. No one we spoke to called for tax cuts.

There was strong support for ensuring that income from wealth is taxed at the same level as income from work. Increasing capital gains tax would achieve this. There was more qualified support for reducing pension tax relief on the highest earners and adding more council tax bands for the most expensive houses.

Whilst it’s possible to make the case for more progressive taxation, the public was put off by language bashing the rich. This was in part because the people we talked to had very different ideas of what “wealth” meant, with many seeing it as having enough to live comfortably, as opposed to being very rich. 

People were also deeply skeptical about whether politicians will deliver on their promises. There was little enthusiasm for either Labour or the Conservatives.

There are lessons here for the Conservatives. “Getting Brexit done” resonated among voters fed up with the stalemate of Westminster politics in the aftermath of the EU referendum. People expect the government to be able to deliver solutions to the long term decline experienced in many of the places we visited.

And there are lessons for those seeking to be leader of the Labour party. The public will support policies to increase taxes on wealth but broad attacks on the rich go down badly with most voters we spoke to.

We will follow up this report with further focus groups and an opinion poll after the budget in March. This next stage will help us work out what messages about wealth and tax resonate the most with the public.

You can read and download the report here. This research was supported by the University of Sheffield and the Friends Provident Foundation.